DAY 55 - Thunderstormin'

The last few weeks have been pretty dry, dry and hot. So of course we were due for a little rain, and boy did it rain hard yesterday. 

I think the storm lasted a little over two hours, but it was rough. I was in the middle of a nap when it started raining. I keep a window open in my room during the warmer months and usually when it rains, that particular window doesn't let water in. Yesterday, however, the storm was so strong that the window's curtain flapped around violently and I got hit by some water, which promptly woke me up. 

I shut the window and went into the living room to check it out, and it turned out that it was raining so hard that it looked like it was the middle of the night instead of late afternoon. The lights were flickering and, at one point, my internet went down. My house is generally lucky enough to be a higher elevation I think, so we managed to avoid flooding. Unfortunately, others weren't so lucky.

I also heard a lot of dinging on the awning and, as it turns out, it also hailed during the storm as well. It was so bad that my friend who works drive-through at a fast food restaurant told me that he got pelted in the face at work in the brief moments he had to stick his head out.

On my way to work today I got to see the aftermath of the storm personally. Lots of strewn leaves everywhere, but also tree branches. At the end of my block was a fairly large branch that looked like it could have stopped traffic; I assumed it actually was in the middle of the street and folks moved it there. Around the halfway point from my house and my work, I saw an even bigger branch in the middle of the sidewalk. It was big enough to block two lanes, which is crazy. 

Across the street from my work is a park. A large part was cordoned off with police tape because a few medium-sized trees got blown down by the storm and you could see exactly where it snapped. The lights on the main street were also out, so it was way darker by the time I got out than I was accustomed to. As it turned out, half of the streetlights on my way home were also out.

Despite the destruction of the storm, I couldn't help but think how cool it would be to sit outside during one of those storms. Not just me without any rain gear or anything, of course. I imagined sitting in a small bubble or perhaps something like a phonebooth, staring out in the storm and marveling at it. I've always enjoyed rain and thunderstorms. Something about it is calming--soothing. It's something I wish would happen more often!

Eric